Individuals, institutions, and post office employees introduce items of mail into the postal system at local post office branches. Once the receiving post office branch is in possession of a mail piece, the mail piece begins a journey through a highly organized system. Mail received into the postal system at a local branch office is eventually transported to a centralized postal hub. There are in excess of 250 postal hubs in the United States. These xe2x80x9chubsxe2x80x9d are known by alternative names including (i) processing and distribution centers, (ii) general mail facilities and (iii) mail distribution centers. Postal hubs are regional mail centers that service individual post office branches within a particular range of ZIP Codes. Typically, a postal hub services one or more xe2x80x9cthree-digit ZIP Code areas.xe2x80x9d For example, the Central Massachusetts Processing and Distribution Center (also known as the xe2x80x9cWorcester Facilityxe2x80x9d) services the local post office branches situated in all the ZIP Codes beginning with xe2x80x9c014xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c015,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c016,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c017.xe2x80x9d That is, mail destined for or departing from a local branch office within a ZIP Code beginning with any one of the four sets of three digits in the previous sentence will, under normal circumstances, pass through the Worcester facility. The Worcester facility services more than two dozen towns, each with its own local branch office. Nationally, the 250 plus hubs collectively service approximately five thousand individual postal branch offices.
Mail coming into and going out of the various local branch offices in a particular geographic region is processed through one or more hubs before delivery to its final destination. For instance, a mail piece originating in Southbridge, Mass. (01550) and destined for Littleton, Mass. (01460) is processed through the Worcester facility only (i.e., a single hub), because the ZIP Code of origin and the destination ZIP Code are both serviced by the Worcester hub. However, in many instances, a mail piece is processed through two hubs between the time of its introduction into the system and its ultimate delivery to an addressee. This is the case, for instance, when a mail piece is received at a branch office that is not serviced by the same hub that services the branch office responsible for delivery of the mail piece to the intended recipient. In such a case, a mail piece received at a branch office is transported to an xe2x80x9coutgoing hubxe2x80x9d where the mail piece is sorted and routed for transportation to an xe2x80x9cincoming hub.xe2x80x9d The incoming hub is the hub that services the local branch office responsible for delivery of the mail piece to the intended recipient. For example, a mail piece originating at Littleton, Mass. (01460) and destined for Owego, N.Y. (13827) is transported from Littleton, Mass. to the Worcester, Mass. facility (i.e., the outgoing hub). At the Worcester facility, the mail piece is sorted and deposited on an appropriate vehicle for transport to the postal hub at Binghamton, N.Y. (i.e., the incoming hub) because the Binghamton hub services the local post office branches beginning with xe2x80x9c137,xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9c138,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c139.xe2x80x9d Once delivered to the Binghamton hub, the mail piece is sorted and delivered to the local, Owego, N.Y. branch office (13827) from which it is transported to the mailbox of the addressee, for example.
Mechanical, electronic and computer apparatus enable postal clerks to process large volumes of mail each day. Larger postal facilities (e.g., hubs) are equipped with rigid containers, bins on wheels, conveyor belts, forklifts, cranes, and other machinery to facilitate the handling of large quantities of mail. There are also segregating machines to separate a mixture of mail into different types.
Some first-class mail is precancelled. If not precancelled, mail pieces must go through a facer-canceler machine. Such a machine can process tens of thousands of letters an hour. Facing is the process of aligning letters so that the address side is facing the canceler, with the stamps in the same corner. The machine prints wavy black lines over the stamp, for example, canceling it so that it cannot be used again. Alongside the stamp is printed a circle containing the date, place, and time of stamping. The circle and wavy lines constitute the letter""s postmark. Typically, mail pieces are canceled at a hub.
After postmarking is completed, mail pieces are ready to be sorted according to destination. Traditionally, clerks sorted mail pieces by hand according to destination, using racks of pigeonholes, called distribution cases. Increasingly, however, the sorting process has been automated.
The United States introduced ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) Codes in 1963. Users of the mail service place a five-digit number (ZIP Code) at the end of the address. The first three digits identify the section of the country to which the mail piece is being sent, while the last two identify the specific post office or zone at the destination. ZIP Codes enable the use of optical and electronic reading and sorting equipment.
In the 1980""s the United States Postal Service introduced a voluntary nine-digit ZIP Code system. Four additional digits were added to the original ZIP Code after a hyphen to speed automated sorting operations. Of the four additional numbers, the first two indicate a specific sector of a city or town such as a cluster of streets or large buildings. The second two numbers represent an even smaller segment such as one side of a city block, one floor of a large building, or a group of post office boxes.
Increasingly, tasks once performed manually are now performed mechanically, electronically and by computers. For instance, destination addresses once read by human beings who sorted mail pieces into compartments based on destination city, for example, are now read by machine (e.g., scanned by optical character recognition apparatus). An image of a destination address is captured and stored in computer memory. Character recognition algorithms analyze the captured image and resolve it into a string of alphanumeric data to generate signals that instruct sorting machines where to route individual mail pieces. Such systems have dramatically increased the efficiency of the postal system and the overall volume of mail that the system can handle.
Despite the technological advances of recent decades, postal management is still largely concerned with the efficient administration and deployment of large bodies of manpower, the organization of large transport fleets, many aspects of property management, and financial and economic problems. Automation and computer technology have increasingly been exploited as a management aid with the realization that the postal service operates within a commercial market where competition from private companies can be fierce and efficiency is the watchword.
With a steady emphasis on efficiency, processes have been devised to reallocate resources in order to facilitate the processing of as many mail pieces as possible during any particular window of time. In some instances, deferring certain aspects of processing, in particular, address interpretation (i.e., resolution), until required further in the overall processing of a mail piece has proven useful. Deferring the processing of information that is not required until later in the routing and processing of a mail piece frees up human and computer resources to handle tasks that must be completed sooner rather than later.
One problem associated with current postal address interpretation methods and architectures is that they rely on first-come, first-served processing of images. Absent a method of prioritizing workflow, physical mail processing cannot proceed until all images complete address interpretation. This results in large, costly xe2x80x9cspikesxe2x80x9d in required automatic and manual address interpretation resources.
Consequently, there exists a need for a method of prioritizing address resolution in accordance with when the resolved address data is required rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.
In one aspect, the present invention concerns a method and architecture for improving the efficiency with which postal personnel and equipment are utilized. Although the invention is particularly well-suited for use within the postal system, it will be appreciated that its scope and application of uses are not so limited. Accordingly, terms such as mail piece, mail center etc. should not be interpreted so narrowly as to limited them to their literal meanings. In general terms, any item that undergoes transport from an origin to a destination through an organized delivery system can be considered a mail piece for purposes of this specification and the appended claims. Additionally, the place at which the item is received into the system, the final depot responsible for its delivery to an addressee, and each intermediate-handling center responsible for some aspect of its routing, sorting, tracking and transport can be considered a mail center. Furthermore, although the invention is adaptable for use in virtually all contexts in which large numbers of items are transported to numerous locations, the discussion and examples illustrating its implementation are presented primarily in the context of the sorting and movement of mail within and between postal hubs of the U.S. Postal Service.
Various embodiments and versions of the invention may include one or more of the following features.
One method for deferred processing of a mail piece including a delivery address through first and second mail centers includes the following steps.
A mail piece having a first address portion including sufficient information to route the mail piece to an incoming mail center, and a second address portion including sufficient information to further route the mail piece for delivery to an addressee from the incoming mail center, is received by an outgoing mail center. In a typical version, the outgoing and incoming mail centers are postal hubs uniquely identifiable upon resolution of only the first three or four digits of a five-digit ZIP Code, as previously discussed. In such a version, postal employees transport mail pieces from local post office branches to the outgoing mail center.
The first address portion is resolved (i.e., interpreted) to determine the incoming mail center for which the mail piece is bound. The resolution of the first address portion may be done manually by a postal employee, but more commonly will be performed with the aid of a computer including OCR (optical character recognition) scanning equipment and an interpretation program. For tracking and information-associating purposes, a unique identification mark such as a bar code, for example, is associated with the mail piece. The identification mark is physically applied to the mail piece using ink or a sticker including the identification mark, for instance. Furthermore, a record is maintained, independent of the marking on the mail piece, associating the unique identification mark and the first and second address portions. This record is typically maintained in the memory of a computer.
The mail piece is physically sorted at the outgoing mail center based on the resolved first address portion to an appropriate transport vehicle bound for the incoming mail center. Present day sorting and routing within postal hubs is performed almost entirely by machines, including conveyors, that receive appropriate instructions from stored computer data as to how to route a particular mail piece. Although the first three or four digits of a five-digit destination ZIP Code is typically sufficient to sort a mail piece to the appropriate transport vehicle at the outgoing mail center for transport to an incoming mail center, alternatively, the city and state might be relied upon. The city and state may also be relied upon when, for instance, a ZIP Code has been omitted or when the ZIP Code is incorrect or unrecognizable.
In an implementation, data is maintained relating the outgoing mail center and the incoming mail center. More specifically, in one version, at least a predetermined transport time indicative of the time required for an item of mail of the same class as the mail piece to be transported between the outgoing and incoming mail centers is maintained (e.g., stored in a xe2x80x9clook-upxe2x80x9d table in computer memory). The time required for transit may depend on such factors as the time of year and even the time of departure of the mail piece on a particular day of the week. Accordingly, this data may be periodically or constantly updated, particularly if plural mail pieces are tracked and their transit times are calculated, recorded and averaged by a computer, for example. In alternative versions, transport-time data for every mail piece bound for an incoming mail center from an outgoing mail center can be tracked or such data can be tracked intermittently. For example, every third or fifth mail piece bound for a particular incoming mail center might be tracked for transport time. By automatically tracking such information and storing it in a data processing system, for instance, real time statistical data can be compiled, maintained and made accessible to either or both of the outgoing and incoming mail centers. Such data can be used at the outgoing mail center in order to constantly or periodically update the xe2x80x9cdeferral timesxe2x80x9d discussed immediately below. The incoming mail center could use the data, for example, to prepare resources for a particular volume of work during a particular window of time.
Based on maintained travel-time data, a deferral time is assigned and associated with a mail piece depending on the outgoing mail center from which a mail piece originates and the incoming mail center for which it is destined. A predetermined deferral time represents, for example, a maximum length of time that can elapse from some established point in time in the processing of the mail piece before the second address portion is resolved and rendered available to the incoming mail center for use in further sorting the mail piece to an addressee. Alternatively, the deferral time can represent a minimum elapsed time before resolution and availability of the second address portion is required. Another alternative is to provide a range (i.e., a time window) whose end points are minimum and maximum deferral times. As an example, a computer instruction may read xe2x80x9cdefer for no less than 48 hours and no greater than 71 hoursxe2x80x9d (e.g., 48 hrs  less than  deferral time  less than 71 hrs). deferral time in terms including at least a maximum time; by including a maximum elapsed time, the required information will not arrive later than it is needed at the incoming mail center. Contrarily, if the deferral time is expressed only in terms of a minimum elapsed time, processing will be delayed for at least that minimum amount of time, but could be delayed longer than desired, resulting in a backlog of unsortable mail at the incoming mail center. The established point in time from which the deferral time begins to run could be the departure time of the transport vehicle or the time the mail piece is marked with the unique identification mark and the record of the identification mark and first and second address portions recorded, for example.
Fluctuations in acceptable deferral times may exist for different times of the year, week or even the day. Another factor is the mode of transportation by which a mail piece is to be transported. By maintaining statistical data relating to transit times, deferral times can be adjusted continuously and/or periodically based on such data. For example, an acceptable maximum deferral time for a mail piece departing from an outgoing mail center in Boston on a Tuesday in August, and bound for Los Angeles, may be 70 hours, while an acceptable deferral time for the same mail piece departing on a Thursday in mid-December may be 90 hours. Maintaining and consulting real-time transit data facilitates the adjustment of deferral times to reflect current conditions in the handling of mail between two or more mail centers, thereby adding an additional dimension of efficiency.
A record of the unique identification mark is transmitted, and at least the resolved second address portion is made available to the incoming mail center in association with the unique identification mark within, for example, an elapsed time not exceeding the maximum time expressed in a deferral time. When implemented with the aid of a computer system, this information can be stored and associated in a mail piece computer memory folder and/or data block. In this way, the resolved second address portion can be xe2x80x9cmatchedxe2x80x9d (i.e., re-associated) with the physical mail piece at the incoming mail center and the mail piece routed for delivery to an addressee.
In alternative versions, the second address portion is resolved, for example, at the outgoing mail center, the incoming mail center or at some third location such as a central or regional computer network and/or employee center to which both the outgoing and incoming mail centers are communicatively linked. Regardless of the particular location of resolution, an important factor is that the second address portion be interpreted and rendered accessible to the incoming mail center when needed. The transmission and resolution of the information required by the incoming mail center can be performed while the mail piece is in transit between the outgoing and incoming mail centers.
The foregoing examples having focused on the deferred processing of individual mail pieces, plural mail pieces are processed through an outgoing mail center and various respective incoming mail centers, depending on respective destinations, according to one or more versions of a method for deferred processing generally as follows.
A plurality of mail pieces is received at an outgoing mail center. Each mail piece of the plurality has a destination address field with a first address portion including sufficient information to route the mail piece to its respective incoming mail center and a second address portion including sufficient information to further route the mail piece for delivery to an addressee from the respective incoming mail center, as generally described in previous examples.
An image is captured of the destination address field of each mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces at the outgoing mail center and the image corresponding to each mail piece is stored in computer memory. The captured image corresponding to each mail piece includes a first address portion image corresponding to the first address portion of the destination address field on the mail piece and a second address portion image corresponding to the second address portion of the destination address field on the mail piece.
Each mail piece is marked with a unique identification mark representing its identity and a computer memory record of the identification mark is stored in association with the stored image of the destination address field corresponding to that mail piece.
The first address portion image corresponding to each mail piece is resolved to generate a first signal representing the respective incoming mail center for that mail piece and each mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces at the outgoing mail center is sorted in response to the first signal corresponding to that mail piece for transport to the respective incoming mail center for that mail piece.
Data is maintained relating the outgoing mail center to each respective incoming mail center. The data reflects at least a predetermined transit time indicative of the time required for a mail piece to be transported from the outgoing mail center to each respective incoming mail center.
Each mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces is transported from the outgoing mail center to its respective incoming mail center.
The second address portion image corresponding to each mail piece of the plurality of mail pieces is resolved to generate a second signal representing the information necessary to further route the mail piece for delivery to an addressee from its respective incoming mail center and the second signal corresponding to each mail piece is rendered accessible to the respective incoming mail center for that mail piece.
The order in which second signals corresponding to mail pieces of the plurality of mail pieces are at least one of (i) generated and (ii) made accessible to the respective incoming mail centers is prioritized in accordance with when the second signals are required by each of the respective incoming mail centers, depending on the maintained data relating the outgoing mail center to the respective incoming mail centers.
Each mail piece is received at its respective incoming mail center and identified by reading the unique identification mark thereon, and the mail piece is associated with the second signal corresponding to that mail piece.
Each mail piece is then sorted at its respective incoming mail center in response to the second signal corresponding to that mail piece for delivery to the addressee.
An advantage of deferring selected portions of processing in general accordance with one or more of the foregoing methods is that resources, whether human or computer based, can be more efficiently utilized by selective allocation as required. For instance, it is not required that the second address portion of a mail piece be resolved and made available any sooner than that information is needed at the incoming mail center to further sort the mail piece for final delivery. Therefore, rather than dedicating resources at the outgoing mail center to full address resolution for each mail piece on a first-come, first-served basis, for example, resources can be more efficiently utilized by resolving only that information that is necessary to route each mail piece to the next stage in its processing.
Secondary address resolution for each mail piece is prioritized relative to other mail pieces according to when resolved secondary address information is needed. For instance, consider first and second mail pieces of the same class entering the postal system through an outgoing mail center in Boston and bound for New York City and Austin, Tex., respectively. The second address portion of the New York City-bound first mail piece will be resolved and made available to the incoming mail center in New York City before the second address portion of the second mail piece is resolved and made available to the incoming mail center in Austin. This example is consistent with the observation that the time required for the first mail piece to reach New York City will generally be less than the time required for the second mail piece to reach Austin. By deferring the processing of information that is not required until a later point in time and, furthermore, processing such further information for plural mail pieces according to the order in which it is required, increased efficiency in the utilization of resources is realized.
Contrarily, in a system that processes address information on a first-come, first-served basis, second portion address information for an Austin-bound mail piece that enters the postal system just prior to a NYC-bound mail piece would have its second portion address information resolved prior to that of the NYC-bound mail piece. Under such a system, something must give. For instance, either unnecessary delay in delivery of the NYC-bound mail piece results or the postal system is required to dedicate inordinate resources to ensure the smooth and timely flow of mail. In either event, efficiency is not maximized.